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Future of the car is here
Three new cars, with vastly different price-tags, reveal the arrival of the future of wheels, writes ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK
Datsun Go
There is little special about the Datsun Go, aside from its price. It is a small car with manual transmission and very little by way of comfort or luxury. But it has one feature that sets it apart from almost any other car in its price range – for now. It boasts a full-colour infotainment screen. And not just any screen: it’s a touch screen, meaning one can control it via buttons or by touching virtual controls on the screen itself.
Most impressively, it offers Bluetooth connectivity as well as a USB port, and the infotainment system supports both Apple Car Play and Android Auto. That means key apps on the phone can be displayed in simplified format on the infotainment screen. For example, it can quickly be turned into a navigation system, carrying the latest mapping updates for Google Maps and Waze, which in turn makes the temporary on-board navigation more advanced than anything built into a BMW or Merc.
When connected to Bluetooth, and with the Media option selected, the system easily picked up Spotify playing on my phone, and transferred it to the car speakers.
If the next generation of drivers can still not afford electric cars or autonomous vehicles, at last they can expect to see interactive, connected infotainment systems on even the most basic cars. In this way, the Datsun Go is as much a forerunner of the car future as is the iPace and the 330i.
- Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee
